Desmond McGrath spent more than 30 years slicing and dicing meat for his Birmingham family firm McGrath Butchers – which had shops across Small Heath, Yardley, Moseley and Balsall Heath before the supermarkets forced them to close.

But before the 63-year-old twice married grandad of five put pen to paper his life was riddled with tragedy after his brothers Phil and Eddie died when they were young.

Phil was aged just 17 when he was shot dead by his driving instructor after a lesson.

The instructor collected guns as a hobby at his home in Armoury Road, Small Heath, and when Phil went to look at them in January 1973 one went off accidentally.

A verdict of death by misadventure was recorded at an inquest.

Desmond’s youngest brother Eddie died after he suffered a brain haemorrhage at the age of 27.

Given this background, it’s perhaps no surprise that Desmond’s quick-read thrillers are not for the faint-hearted.

His latest story, One Last Kill, completes a trilogy about Falklands War veteran Jack Reec.

After Desmond’s first novel Private Execution (2004) was followed by The Executioner (2009), the cover notes for the third story leave nothing to the imagination.

“Jack Reec is hurting and has been wounded three times by his old enemy...

“Psychopathic David Walker has made a fresh kill and is now branded ‘the Costa Killer’.”

As well as blood and gore Des knows a thing or two about sauce – some of his paragraphs are so racy they would have curled the hair of James Bond author Ian Fleming.

But Desmond has not forgotten his two brothers as he looks forward to having his name in print once more.

Two of the names on his dedication page are those of Phil and Eddie.

“My brother Phil was 17 when he was shot in Small Heath,” says Desmond.

“His driving instructor invited him into his house.

“He liked guns and somehow Phil got shot.

“I went into that house and saw the blood on the wall and how Phil must have slid down.

“The coroner concluded it was ‘death by misadventure’.”

Desmond told how Eddie, his youngest brother, then decided to ‘live life to the max’.

And when Eddie was aged 17 he declared he wanted to go to California.

Scared for him, Des, then aged 32, said he had to go, too.

“We had the most crazy, fantastic time, going to San Diego, Vegas, Honolulu,” Des recalls.

“Ten years later, Eddie was in a pub one night and just had a brain haemorrhage.

“After six weeks in hospital, Eddie died, too. He was just 27.”

Desmond moved to Britain from Ireland when he was a child and lived in Jersey for five years before the family relocated to Birmingham.

He was 49 years old when the last of the McGrath shops closed in Hobmoor Road, Yardley.

“I had my first shop at 16 in Somerville Road and when I was 24 I was working up to 14 hours a day, six days a week,” says Desmond.

“It was hard graft, but I was on three or four times what the car workers were on.

“I was only a boy when I first went with my dad to the slaughterhouse on Bradford Street and there was nothing he didn’t know about meat.”

In between penning his novels by hand in reporter’s notebooks, Desmond still works for other butchers part-time.

He also likes to party and has made friends with several football stars.

Although a Villa fan at heart he was invited to go to Spain for the wedding of Trevor Francis’s son, Matthew.

Another invitation to join ex-Villa ace Gareth Barry on his stag do in Las Vegas was waived after his wife Barbara put her foot down – she doesn’t fly anymore after once enduring a bumpy flight back from the gambling capital.

Villa let him use their ground to research his second book, which featured a grisly plot to shoot a Manchester United centre forward on the pitch during a game.

Desmond’s first experience of writing was to compile a meat information booklet.

He then tried his hand at TV plays and came close to having a series about a butcher, called Butch.

“Unfortunately, they chose instead to make The Upper Hand with Honor Blackman,” he says.

“I can’t complain about that because it was a funny series.

“And I did get encouragement from ITV to try to keep writing, though I was told ‘although episode two is very funny, try not to shock just for the sake of shocking – we can’t put that on television!’.

“I think I was ahead of my time in that respect.”

So who would he like to play Jack Reec, who is named after one of his grandchildren, in the movies?

“I always thought it would be lovely if Pierce Brosnan could do it,” says Desmond.

“But if he’s too old, because Jack is about 40, maybe Antonio Banderas!”

Sawing and boning the finest cuts leaves him with blood on his hands by day ready to plot some sticky ends for his characters at night.

For Desmond, making up stories like this are his way of relaxing and he’s already planning book number four: A Date With Death.

A couple of years ago, when his father Patrick died, Desmond moved into his home in Sheldon.

There, he discovered that he wasn’t the only member of his family who had a passion for writing.

“It was the spookiest thing ever because when I was sorting things out I found a cassette tape and, on the front, it said: ‘Eddie in America’.

“When we got back he had gone through the whole holiday.

“It upset me listening to it, but he must have thought he would make a record of the trip.

“It must have been there for 20 years and nobody ever knew it existed.

“I play it every now and then, when nobody is about.

“I also found an exercise book in which he had started to write a story called ‘Subway Killer’.

“Eddie was always saying to the girls: “You’ve got ‘come to bed eyes’. But have you got ‘come to bed with Eddie eyes?’.

“The number of times I’ve heard him say that – Eddie was the character!”

Desmond McGrath: One Last Kill (£15.99, Fast Print Publishing – ISBN 978-178035-205-3) is available to order through any good bookshop, internet retailer or direct from the publisher at www.fast-print.net